The Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs (CAEP) has established five standards to measure the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs. Clinical partnerships and practice represent "Standard 2." The CAEP requires that teacher education programs design high quality clinical practice that is central to preparation…

This primer summarizes interdisciplinary collaborative mathematics as an integrative approach to train pre-service elementary teachers to teach math utilizing Junior Achievement USA (JA) educational programs within an elementary Math Methods course. The primer provides a JA historical background/program overview, summarizes the interdisciplinary…

Many pre-service teachers express a lack of confidence and preparedness to face the challenges of teaching reading in today's classrooms. The current study looks at whether Structured Participation Experiences (SPE) in reading increase pre-service teachers' preparedness to teach reading compared to more traditional unstructured field experiences.…

Research shows that teachers' efficacy relates to pupil achievement. Strong efficacy, or a self-belief that one can positively impact pupil learning, is risked when teachers develop concerns related to pupil learning. This study explored the perceived concerns of teacher candidates (N = 3) throughout an eight-week clinical field experience.…

Learning is an active process, best facilitated by involving the learning in cognitive engagement with the information to be learned. Most college ecology instructors consist of lecture and exams, but also include active components of laboratories and field trips (campus and off-campus). Field trips can be subdivided into three major phases:…

Practicum experiences are an extremely critical component to any teacher education program. Yet how pre-service teachers are included in classrooms can be organized in multiple ways and is influenced by many factors. Structurally, universities must consider school schedules and student course offering schedules. More important is ensuring…

Physical education teacher education (PETE) students are given opportunities in "early field experiences" (EFEs) to observe and assist experienced teachers in schools. Typically, students are then required to do some autonomous teaching, to give them practical experience in the real world of local schools. Ultimately students will move on to…

Institutions that prepare teachers have a clear need to extend their programs and assessments beyond current initiatives and to provide a greater focus on the intangible qualities of an "effective" teacher. This study deals with how a college of education that is part of a mid-sized north-eastern university developed and implemented a…

Creating the most effective and well-educated teachers possible has been always the clear focus of the Teacher Education Department at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). During the academic year of 1999-2000, a tripartite task force was created for the College of Education at UNK to identify areas in need of revision or elimination from…

This paper describes an effort to provide prospective teachers opportunities to better understand African American male students and better focus on how they learn mathematics. Prospective teachers spent 15 hours over an eight week span mentoring and tutoring African American males without the guise of practicing teachers. Qualitative data drawn…

When preservice teacher programs are failing to adequately prepare collegiate students towards becoming thriving teachers, what can be done? After many complaints were voiced from my student body, a survey was constructed, which revealed student satisfaction levels were lowest in the following areas: 1) The variety of opportunities to teach…

To test the general reliability and validity of the Triangulation Interview Form (TIF), 52 observers viewed a videotape simulation of an interview situation. Agreement among observers for each of 16 TIF questions ranged from 85 to 98 percent. Observers significantly discriminated between eight behaviors judged complete and eight behaviors judged…

Describing problems of the field component of a teacher education program, this article discusses: poor supervising teacher role models; inferior school programs; schools that only use college students for clerical aides; college interference in and domination of local school curriculum; and additional expense and management problems for colleges…

Investigating the attitudinal effects of a college course on a class of senior education majors, this study involved an experimental group which attended the regular class supplemented by a field centered experience and a control group which only engaged in the regular class. (JC)